


A Wonderful Life

by lucidscreamer



Category: Twilight (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Christmas, Gen, Human Bella Swan, Old Age, One-Sided Relationship, Out of Character Bella Swan, Past Relationship(s), Widowed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:07:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26242402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucidscreamer/pseuds/lucidscreamer
Summary: Bella's life may not have been the "perfect" one she once imagined, but it's been a good one.
Relationships: Bella Swan/Original Male Character(s), Edward Cullen/Bella Swan
Comments: 7
Kudos: 15





	A Wonderful Life

**Author's Note:**

> This was written many years ago and published on FFnet. I honestly thought I'd posted it here but apparently not.
> 
> This is NOT a story for fans of Bella/Edward, though I do consider this to be a happy ending. Bella is out of character, in that she grew the heck up and found a healthy romantic relationship with someone who was not Edward.

Bella Swan was forty-seven when she married Thomas Weiner. 

They'd met at the supermarket, of all places, like one of those silly 'where to meet men' articles in some women's magazine. They were friends first, their relationship a slow, easy slide into a romance so gentle she never saw it coming until she was in over her head. And it was good. He was good -- and good for her, to her.

She didn't want kids. She was nearing fifty, and he had three college-aged offspring of his own (two boys and a girl), and she had already spent too many years of her life mothering her parents. So, that was okay. His boys stood up with him as his best men; Jenny was her maid of honor. 

They were happy.

For over thiry years, they were happy.

* * *

She was seventy-nine when she saw _him_ again.

It was Christmas Eve -- her first Christmas without Thomas. She was far from alone, though. The whole family was here, including Jenny's grandchildren, and the house rang with their shouts of laughter as their parents tried to corral them for bed. The lights on the small tree in the corner of her bedroom cast multicolored, twinkling reflections against the white wall. For awhile, she watched the lights, fascinated by the changing patterns, which scintillated and fractured like a handful of diamonds scattered in the sun...

And then she realized that the lights were much brighter, colors (something) the whole room, and she suddenly found it a little hard to breathe. She held her breath when she saw him step out of the shadows in the corner by the window.

"... _Edward_?" Her voice was raspy and small.

"Hello, Bella." His was smooth and almost musical. He glided toward her on silent feet and she drank him in for the first time in half a century.

"You haven't changed." 

It was an inane thing to say, but her mind was incapable of producing anything better. And it was true, of course. He hadn't changed. From his perpetually-mussed auburn hair (had she really once been pretentious enough to call it 'bronze'?) to his marble-pale skin and golden eyes, he was exactly as she remembered. 

He looked at her with a faint smile playing about the corners of his mouth and lifted her hand to press a kiss to the fragile, wrinkled skin. "You have."

Okay, maybe he had changed. She didn't remember him being this much of an asshole.

As if reading her mind (or, more likely, her expression), he amended, "You're more beautiful than ever."

"Yeah, right." She pulled her hand free of his feather-light grasp. "My eyes do still work, Edward. I know what I look like."

"Somehow, I doubt it." His smile crooked up on one side as he settled on the ottoman beside her chair. "You never did see yourself very clearly."

She folded her arms. "I got old."

"You've lived. It's a good look on you."

For a long moment, she stared at him before relenting. "What about you?"

A shrug. "I'm still here."

She heard the hint of untold stories beneath his words, but his tone discouraged her from asking. Glancing down at her hands in her lap, she plucked at the soft woven throw covering her legs. "Why are you here?"

"I wanted to see you." He reached out and took her hands gently in his, his thumb stroking over the pulse throbbing in her wrists. "I wanted to know you were well."

"I am." Again, she pulled her hands away. "I've had a good life." 

A long, human life -- though not with him. He had said he was willing, but, in the end, she had known the only way to live was to do it away from vampires and wolves and things that lurked in the shadows of her darkest fears. It had been a hard lesson to learn. When she'd been young and still stupid enough to think herself immortal, her own life hadn't meant that much if she couldn't spend it with him. And then Mike, who was just as young and stupid, died in a totally preventable accident. And Jess got sick (Bella had helped her shop for headscarves and wigs when the chemo started). And so many little things started to add up to "every moment of your life is precious, so don't waste it."

So, she hadn't. She'd _lived_.

College and careers and mortgages/retirement plans/last will and testament. She'd grown up -- and old. She'd found Thomas and love and a family to call her own.

"Tell me you were happy..." whispered the ageless echo of her distant, youthful folly.

Her hand shook a bit when she reached to cup his smooth cheek, but it was the palsy of age, not nerves, and her voice was steady and honest when she replied, "I was. I _am_."

"That's all I've ever wanted," he said, and kissed her good-bye. "Merry Christmas, Bella."

He was gone before she could touch her fingers to her tingling lips. 

She sat in the quiet dark, lit only by the twinkling lights, and allowed a moment to think of eternity and souls and foolish youth. And then she straightened her stooped shoulders and reached for her cane. Because in the morning there would be presents and hot chocolate and laughing children... and she needed a good night's sleep to deal with the sheer life of it all.

Smiling to herself, she made her way slowly to bed. Maybe it wasn't always wonderful, but it was her life, and she could be glad she'd finally learned to appreciate it.

Sparkling off the tinsel like a vampire in the sun, the Christmas lights soothed her to sleep.


End file.
